SAP Customers Catch A Break As Vendor Delays Maintenance Fee Increases
Under a plan SAP unveiled in July 2008, existing customers were to move to a more comprehensive -- and more expensive -- maintenance service plan called SAP Enterprise Support that would ultimately impose an annual fee equal to 22 percent of the software license price. Typically those fees today are 17 percent of software prices.
SAP at the time said it would phase in the higher prices over time through 2012 for existing customers. But SAP has continued to delay implementing the increase. Earlier this year the Walldorf, Germany-based company announced it would stretch out the timeframe for the fee increase, which would not reach the 22-percent level until 2015. The company also launched an effort with a coalition of SAP user groups to develop key performance indicators (KPIs) in an effort to measure the benefits of the SAP Enterprise Support program.
Under today's announcement the decision on increasing the fees will be delayed again until early 2010. SAP has created a task force to work with customers and user groups "to continue and enhance the ongoing dialogue" concerning SAP's support offerings, the company said, and will postpone a decision on increasing the maintenance fees until the task force reports its results.
"With this [step]," SAP once again demonstrates that it takes the concerns of its customers seriously and also recognizes the ongoing pressures bearing down on IT budgets in the current economic environment," the company said in a statement.
The company said early results from the effort to measure the benefits of SAP Enterprise Support had demonstrated that the program offers "clear value" to participating customers.